In 1871 the Territory of Colorado built the first territorial prison in Caņon City. Since then Caņon City has been the primary geographic location for corrections for the State of Colorado. Consequently, the Colorado prison system, including the wardens, employees, and inmates, has played an important role in the history of Caņon City and Fremont County. Today, the Colorado Department of Corrections and the Federal Bureau of Prisons are the two largest employers in the county.

In January 2000, the Local History Center, the Caņon City Public Library, and the Museum of Colorado Prisons received a grant from the Colorado Digitization Project (CDP) to make accessible, via the Internet, 343 images from the albums of Warden C.P. Hoyt and Warden Roy Best. These images provide documentation of events during two major expansion periods of the Territorial Prison - its buildings, prison life, activities, and ranches.